CEPAL Review no. 124

CEPAL Review N° 124 • April 2018 163
Table 1
Review of evidence in Latin American and Caribbean countries
Author Year Countries in the study Conclusions and suggestions
Batra, Kaufmann
and Stone
Ueki, Tsuji
and Cárcamo
2003 Latin America
2005 Latin America
The average time needed to complete an export or import process in Latin America
ranges from 2 to 48 days, compared to 1-24 days in other countries.
Burdensome trade procedures constitute considerable barriers for small and mediumsized
enterprises (SMEs) wishing to export their products. Inefficient handling of trade
documents supervised by government departments raises the cost of international trade.
The following recommendations are made to the region: create a network of researchers
to observe SMEs; provide distance education on trade and industry; form virtual
conglomerates; build commercial telecommunications infrastructure; unify technological
standards and information and communications technology (ICT) security, and adopt
trade facilitation measures.
Nordas and others 2006 Dominican Republic
Recognizes the importance of logistics systems in general and trade facilitation
measures in particular.
Servín 2008
Castro 2010
Paraguay and
European Union
Central America
and Panama
The study recommends forging commitments to promote mechanisms that facilitate
foreign trade between Paraguay and the European Union, in particular to modernize ports,
develop ICTs and simplify and expedite customs procedures.
The following problems are highlighted: excessive time and inspections needed to obtain
special permits, limited institutional support, problems in the training of customs
personnel, excessive procedures and systems, and infrastructure shortcomings. As part
of the improvement actions, emphasis is placed on the need to implement electronic
transmission systems and review procedures to simplify bureaucracy. In addition,
recommendations are made to strengthen the institutions supporting MSMEs.
Barbero 2010 South America
Priority actions are identified to improve trade facilitation: increase the provision of basic
infrastructure and infrastructure services targeted more directly on logistics; improve
services provided by exclusively the State, particularly customs and para-customs
management; improve the performance of private companies, including training for
smaller firms, and promote quality policies in logistics performance.
Stark 2011
El Salvador
and Guatemala
This study highlights the need to formulate a strategy of international engagement that
affords consistency to programmes and actions within a long-term country vision, shared
by the main national actors. This strategy must be based on innovation and the
permanent creation of new and quality goods and services, as well as productivity
growth. Trade facilitation measures need to be included in these processes.
Fuentes
and Del Castillo
2012 Mexico
The results show that the proposed tariff reduction policy does not have a significant
effect on economic growth or on the distribution of income across social groups.
The tariff reduction policy only implies a change in the components of the trade balance
and in the composition of employment.
Cordero 2014
CARICOM
and Central America
Complementarity between Central America and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
is feasible thanks to productive specialization; but access routes need to be created
to maintain competitiveness. It is also necessary to increase trade facilitation to reduce
the costs and time of import-export processes.
Cortes 2014 Colombia
Colombia is not a trade-competitive country because of its obsolete logistics organization,
mainly in aspects related to infrastructure, traceability, the customs regime, corruption
and security, which increases export costs.
Source: Prepared by the authors.
In the 104 countries selected for this study, the average cost of exporting a container was
US$ 1,092.00 in 2010 (see figure 2). Chile was below the average, with a cost of US$ 745. Asian
countries are among those with the lowest per-container export cost, especially Singapore (US$ 456),
Malaysia (US$ 450) and China (US$ 500), while the countries with the highest per-container export
cost are Kazakhstan (US$ 3,005), Zambia (US$ 2,664) and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
(US$ 2,590). In 2013 and 2014, the per-container cost in Singapore was further reduced to US$ 440,
while the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Zambia saw considerable increases to US$ 3,490 and
US$ 6,369, respectively.
Darcy Fuenzalida-O’Shee, Bárbara Valenzuela-Klagges and Alejandro Corvalán-Quiroz